It”s been two weeks since the Oakland Athletics hired Bob Melvin as interim manager to replace Bob Geren, and the team already appears to have improved.
The A”s sat at 27-36 on June 9, mired in a nine-game losing streak, when Oakland”s brass made the change.
Things didn”t look so good after Melvin”s first five-game stretch, during which the A”s went 1-4, bringing their overall slump to 13 losses in 14 games.
But in the last week, the team began to click, winning six straight games and improving its overall record to 34-40 after Tuesday night — and perhaps more importantly, closing the division gap to 5.5 games behind the Texas Rangers.
The good run put the A”s at 7-4 during Melvin”s first 11 games, which is clearly too inadequate a sample size to justify any long-term conclusions but is just big enough to indicate a positive short-term trend.
The impetus behind the recent encouraging turn appears to be several important Melvin moves.
First, the bullpen pitchers seem to understand their role — knowledge some lacked under Geren”s watch, leading to the well-publicized late-May criticisms lodged by then-closer Brian Fuentes.
During Melvin”s first couple weeks, the bullpen pitchers have had consistent roles, Fuentes included. The result has been stronger performances from an already vaunted relief staff.
Melvin has also tinkered with the corner infielders; two positions that have haunted the A”s on the field and behind the plate.
Early-season acquisition Scott Sizemore has become the usual third baseman and provided an offensive spark, batting .387 during his first 10 games with the A”s.
First base has been an even more problematic position for Oakland. Geren”s everyday starter, Daric Barton, has hovered around .210 with no home runs to this point, all while tallying up eight errors.
Smartly, Melvin has integrated Conor Jackson, one the A”s best hitters and most consistent fielders this season, into the lineup by frequently putting him at first base.
Still, the corner-infield adjustments didn”t correct the defensive issues for the A”s, who committed at least one error in each of Melvin”s first nine games. Oakland”s players have compensated somewhat for the poor defense under Melvin, averaging more than four runs per game.
Though the batting order continues to be a work in progress for Melvin, some of his early choices have worked well so far.
Moving Cliff Pennington up to second position has added power and consistency to the first half of the lineup.
Melvin also committed to Hideki Matsui as the everyday designated hitter, and the aging Japanese star has responded, hitting three home runs and driving in nine runs during the span.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
